Three Israeli hostages are with Israeli forces in Gaza as ceasefire passes first hurdle – National

The first three hostages to be released from Gaza were handed over to Israeli forces, the military announced Sunday, hours after the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli media, with live footage from Al Jazeera in Qatar, showed the hostages looking at Red Cross vehicles as their convoy moved through Gaza City. The vehicles were escorted by armed men wearing green Hamas headbands and struggled to protect the vehicles from an unruly crowd that swelled into the thousands.

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, thousands of people gathered to watch the news erupt in jubilation on big screens. For months, many have gathered in the square to demand a ceasefire.

The deal ushers in an initial six-week period of calm and raises hopes for the release of dozens of militant-held hostages and an end to the devastating 15-month war. A last-minute delay by Hamas delayed the start of the ceasefire by nearly three hours and highlighted its fragility.

Even before the ceasefire took effect, celebrations broke out across the area and some Palestinians began to return to their homes. Israel earlier announced the names of the first three hostages to be freed in exchange for the planned release of 90 Palestinian prisoners later Sunday.

The truce, which began at 11:15 a.m. local time, is the first step toward ending the conflict and returning nearly 100 hostages kidnapped in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

An Israeli official confirmed that Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were the hostages who were released on Sunday. Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, while the others were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Damari is an Israeli-British dual citizen.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations, said the families had approved the publication of the names.

In the meantime, between 8:30 a.m. and when the truce took hold, Israeli fire killed at least 26 people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. It did not say whether they were civilians or combatants. The army has warned people to stay away from Israeli forces as they withdraw to a buffer zone in Gaza.

Israel’s national security minister, meanwhile, said his Jewish Power faction left the government in protest over the ceasefire agreement. The departure of Itamar Ben-Gvir weakens the coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but will not affect the ceasefire.

In a separate development, Israel announced that it had recovered the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier killed in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, in a special operation in Gaza. The bodies of Shaul and another soldier, Hadar Goldin, remained there after the 2014 war and had not been returned.

Fragile agreement

The ceasefire agreement was announced last week after a year of mediation by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. The outgoing Biden administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s team had both been pushing to reach an agreement before Monday’s inauguration.

Netanyahu warned Saturday that he had Trump’s support to fight on if necessary.

The first 42-day phase of the ceasefire should see 33 hostages return from Gaza and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees released. Many displaced Palestinians must be able to return home.

There should also be an increase in humanitarian aid, with hundreds of trucks entering Gaza daily, far more than Israel previously allowed. The United Nations World Food Program said trucks began coming through two crossings after the ceasefire.

This is just the second ceasefire in the war, longer and more consistent than a week-long pause in November 2023, with the potential to end the fighting for good.

The negotiations on the much more difficult second phase of this ceasefire should start in about two weeks. Big questions remain, including whether the war will resume after the first phase and how the rest of the hostages in Gaza will be freed.

Palestinians celebrate despite delay

Celebrations erupted across the Gaza Strip as people hoped for calm after the fighting killed tens of thousands, destroyed large swathes of the territory and displaced most of its population.

Masked militants appeared at some celebrations, where crowds chanted slogans in support of them, according to Associated Press reporters in Gaza. The Hamas-run police began to deploy in public after being mostly depleted by Israeli airstrikes.

Some families set off home on foot, loading their possessions onto donkey carts.

In the southern city of Rafah, residents returned to find massive destruction. Some found human remains including skulls in the rubble.

“It’s like you’re watching a Hollywood horror movie,” resident Mohamed Abu Taha told the AP as he inspected the ruins of his family’s home.

Israelis divided over ceasefire deal

In Israel, people remained divided over the agreement.

Asher Pizem, 35, from the Gaza city of Sderot, said he was anxiously awaiting the return of the hostages, but said the deal had only postponed the next confrontation with Hamas. He also criticized Israel for allowing aid into Gaza, saying it would contribute to the resurgence of the militant group.

“They will take their time and attack again,” he said as he viewed the smoldering ruins of Gaza from a small hill in southern Israel with other Israelis gathered there.

Israel’s cabinet approved the cease-fire early Saturday in a rare session during the Jewish Sabbath, more than two days after mediators announced the deal.

Huge toll

The toll of the war has been enormous, and new details about its extent will now emerge. The head of the Rafah community in Gaza, Ahmed al-Sufi, said the Israeli army had destroyed much of the infrastructure, including water, electricity and road networks, in addition to thousands of homes.

More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which says women and children make up more than half of the dead, but does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.

The Hamas-led assault on southern Israel that sparked the war killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and militants kidnapped around 250 others. More than 100 hostages were freed during the week-long ceasefire in November 2023.

About 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced. The United Nations says homes, the health system, road networks and other vital infrastructure have been badly damaged. Reconstruction – if the ceasefire reaches its final phase – will take at least several years. Big questions about Gaza’s future, political and otherwise, remain unresolved.

Here’s a look at the three hostages who were released on Sunday:

Romi Gonen, 24

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Romi Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. That morning, Gonen’s mother, Merav, and her eldest daughter spent nearly five hours talking to Gonen as militants ransacked the festival grounds. Gonen told her family that roads clogged with abandoned cars made escape impossible and that she would seek shelter in some bushes.

Then she said words that echoed in her mother’s head every day. “Mom, I was shot, the car was shot, everyone was shot. … I’m injured and bleeding. Mom, I think I’m going to die,” she told Romi, as she said, at a press conference a few weeks after the abduction

At a loss for what to do, Merav Gonen tried to convince her daughter that she wasn’t going to die, start breathing and treat her injured friends. According to Merav, Gonen’s last word during the call was a cry of “mom!” as incoming gunfire and the shouts of the men drowned out everything.

Then the phone went off. Israeli authorities identified the location of her phone in Gaza.

In the past 15 months, Merav has been one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing almost daily on Israeli news programs and traveling abroad on missions.

“We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget,” Merav told The Associated Press on the six-month anniversary of the Hamas attack. “Every day we wake up and take a big breath, a deep breath, and keep walking, keep doing the things that bring them back.”

Emily Damari, 28

Emily Damari is a British-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village that has been hit hard by the Hamas attack. She lived in a small apartment in a neighborhood for young adults, the closest part of the kibbutz to Gaza. Militants broke through the border fence of the kibbutz and ransacked the neighborhood.

Damari’s mother, Mandy, said she likes music, traveling, soccer, good food, karaoke and hats. Kibbutz Kfar Aza said that Damari was often the “glue that held her tight-knit group of friends together” and that she always organized gatherings of friends around the best barbecue corner in the entire kibbutz.

“I’m holding on to that sliver of hope that I still have in my heart that she will survive, despite her suffering,” Mandy Damari said last January in front of Damari’s burned down apartment. “I am desperate, angry and afraid for her life.”

Doron Steinbrecher, 31

Doron Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse who loves animals, and a neighbor of Damari in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

At 10:20 a.m. on October 7, 2023, Steinbrecher called her mother. “Mom, I’m scared. I’m hiding under the bed and I hear them trying to enter my apartment,” recalls her brother Dor. She was able to send a voice message to her friends. “They’ve got me! They have me! They have me!” in the moments of her abduction.

That message was the key to helping her family understand that Doron had been kidnapped.

Steinbrecher was featured in a video released by Hamas on January 26, 2024, along with two other female Israeli soldiers. Her brother said the video gave them hope that she was alive but worried because she looked tired, weak and despondent.

In total, militants killed 64 people and 22 soldiers, and kidnapped 19 people from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on 7 October. With the return of Steinbrecher and Damari, there are three more members of the kibbutz held in Gaza: American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65, and the twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 27.

With files from Melanie Lidman